1. Oct 2019 - Costa Rica F2F meeting
O-RAN - AI/ML flow
Oct Costa Rica F2F meeting
Manoop Talasila – AT&T
Guy Jacobson – AT&T

2. © 2019 O-RAN Alliance All Rights Reserved
AI/ML in Amber Release
O-RAN Model Lifecycle
AcumosAI Platform
AI Integration Architecture
ML Usecases
Q&A
Agenda
© 2019 O-RAN Alliance All Rights Reserved

3. O-RAN AI/ML in Amber release
RIC ML Features
Quick models import into RIC through O1 and adapt it into xApps (near-real time).
Deploy models as is into non-real time (mostly on SMO side).
Built adapter to speak RMR protocol.
Why integrate RIC with Acumos?
Standardized platform, easy export, Docker deployment
RIC xApp developers can use Acumos AI catalog with ease
RIC xApp developers can focus on building great AI/ML based xApps rather than creating/maintaining infrastructure
Many companies have deployed/are using Acumos: Ericsson, Huawei, ZTE, Orange, AI4EU, AT&T, and TechM
Key Objectives/Business Benefits
Monetize and save on ML-based xApps by allowing many vendors to build and deploy xApps
Develop integration across Acumos, SMO (ONAP), and O-RAN
© 2019 O-RAN Alliance All Rights Reserved

4. O-RAN - ML model lifecycle
SMO ( ) **
** Acumos is an LF project – upstream from O-RAN SC
© 2019 O-RAN Alliance All Rights Reserved

5. What is Acumos? Continuous Learning Runtime Systems
Create & On-Board Models
Execute In Target Environment
Runtime Systems
Continuous Learning
AI Development Services and tools
(Scikit-Learn, Tensor Flow, H2O, RCloud)
Docker Images
Model
AI Platform & Marketplace
Local Learning
Onboard
Deploy
Train
Publish
Executable
Search
Review
Predictor
Example of an ML design platform
Chaining
Rating
Data Sources
Training Dataset
Training / Testing Lifecycle
Enhancing Model With Application Data Sets
Sharing Models In Marketplace
© 2019 O-RAN Alliance All Rights Reserved

6. Linux Foundation Acumos AI Members
© 2019 O-RAN Alliance All Rights Reserved

7. RIC/Acumos Integration Architecture
Deploy standard Acumos microservices
which speak GRPC/Protobuf, and have a self-contained request/response usage pattern
Add new Acumos Microservice Adapter
Uses Python interface to standard RMR library to listen for and send messages on the bus to RIC using RMR protocol
Two Docker images deployed together
to serve as a single xApp via Helm chart
Performance measurement
suggest that the overhead involved is acceptable for non-real-time and many near-real-time xApps.
docker
registry
Model Catalog
Service Management & Orchestration ( ) O1
RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) near-RT
xApp built using Acumos microservice
Backup slide for RMR protocol
Add SMO between Acumos to O1
Release B (native RMR adapter in future work slide) – language dependent
Added dotted box as RIC and xApp – to – xApp communication
xAPP / Acumos Microservice Adapter
Standard Acumos ML model Microservice
xApp1
xApp2 .
xApp#
RMR Protocol
http /GRPC
Python RMR Lib
Kubernetes pod
Config
© 2019 O-RAN Alliance All Rights Reserved

8. Future Work Avoid overhead of adapter
ML model language specific model runners
RMR model runner
docker
registry
Model Catalog
Service Management & Orchestration ( ) O1
RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) near-RT
xApp built using Acumos microservice
xAPP / Acumos Microservice Adapter
Standard Acumos ML model Microservice
xApp1
xApp2 .
xApp#
RMR Protocol
http /GRPC
RMR Protocol
Python RMR Lib
Kubernetes pod
Config
© 2019 O-RAN Alliance All Rights Reserved

9. RIC AI/ML Potential POCs
Traffic Steering
Training data from measurement reports
Can create xApp to set policy here
xApp deployment through O1 interface and configuration via A1 interface APIs in O-RAN
QoE Optimization
Training data from QoE metrics
Reinforcement learning based on A1/E2 message?
MIMO Beamforming Optimization
Needs many sources of training data: user location/context, RAN configuration/performance…
Control messages to optimize MIMO parameters
- Refer traffic prediction INFOCOM paper link
© 2019 O-RAN Alliance All Rights Reserved

10. Questions? Useful Links
RIC ML Based xApp -
Acumos -
Public Instance - market.acumos.org
Acumos wiki - wiki.acumos.org
Acumos Gerrit code repository - gerrit.acumos.org
© 2019 O-RAN Alliance All Rights Reserved